Todd Golden-Ben McCollum fight: Florida, Iowa coaches involved in heated exchange during March Madness game

Pyrotechnics took hold of Benchmark International Arena during No. 1 Florida and No. 9 Iowa's Round of 32 tilt.

The action on the floor proved feisty, with both sides exchanging bruising blows in the first half. The Hawkeyes found the target on a number of occasions, only for the Gators to respond in kind. Iowa opened up a 10-point advantage ahead of the break, but by the time the halftime horn sounded, its advantage stood at just two.

On the sidelines, a war of words brewed between the teams' two head coaches -- Florida's Todd Golden and Iowa's Ben McCollum. Video of a heated confrontation between the pair danced across social media, adding a little more intensity to a matchup already teeming with it.

Here's what you need to know.

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Todd Golden-Ben McCollum fight

Golden and McCollum confronted one another partway through the first-half of Sunday's game.

The verbal sparring session appeared to originate from an on-court dustup between Florida's Alex Condon and Iowa's Alvaro Folgueiras. The two wrestled with one another for the ball, prompting officials to give both players a technical foul.

The assessment of the double technical appeared to spark something in Golden and McCollum, who directed venom at one another during the official timeout. McCollum had to be physically restrained from coming after Golden, who stood stoically on the other sideline.

Safe to say Todd Golden and Ben McCollum don’t like each other 😳 pic.twitter.com/LHqVlG7y5K

— College Basketball Content (@CBBcontent) March 22, 2026

It's unclear quite what was said between Golden and McCollum. The decision to assess Condon a technical foul did not seem to go over well in the Golden camp, however.

— Eliot Clough (@EliotClough) March 22, 2026

Todd Golden-Ben McCollum video

Here's a few angles at Golden and McCollum's verbal spat:

— The Field of 68 (@TheFieldOf68) March 22, 2026

Florida head coach Todd Golden just unleashed on the Iowa bench and Ben McCollum was not having it pic.twitter.com/UymMOz6mds

— Sean Bock (@SBock247) March 22, 2026